SAN JOSE, Calif. — With the omicron variant fueling another dangerous surge of coronavirus cases, the mayor of the nation’s 10th-largest city wants to require that employees and visitors of city-owned venues show proof of a booster shot.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo announced a new plan Tuesday to require proof of full vaccination and an additional booster shot in order for residents or visitors to enter city-owned facilities like the SAP center and as a condition of employment with the city.
If the rest of the City Council endorses his proposal next month, San Jose could become the first city in California to enact such a mandate. Other cities across the country, including New York City and Boston, are considering similar proof-of-booster requirements.
The mayor’s announcement comes just one day after federal officials announced that omicron had become the dominant variant for new cases in the U.S. and the first available data for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine indicated that a booster dose was effective against the rapidly-spreading variant.
“As far as I can tell, there is no reason why we should not move forward aggressively given what we know both about omicron and the importance of getting fully vaccinated, which I believe includes a booster shot,” Liccardo said during a news briefing Tuesday.
San Jose currently requires that attendees and staff of events with 50 or more people held at city facilities — such as the SAP Center, Convention Center, Montgomery Theater, San Jose Civic and Center for Performing Arts — show proof of full vaccination prior to entering. City employees are also required to be fully vaccinated or to have a religious or medical exemption.
Now, Liccardo wants to take one step further and require proof of a third shot, which experts say is one of the most effective tools to prevent the spread of the omicron variant.
Under the mayor’s proposal, exemptions would be put in place for people who received their second dose of the vaccination within the last six months and for children who are currently ineligible for a vaccine. Liccardo said he would like to see both the employee booster mandate and the proof-of-vaccination requirement for public facilities be put in place by the end of January.
City employees who fail to abide by the mandate would likely be subject to similar disciplinary steps taken with the city’s requirement that employees be fully vaccinated. In that case, employees who failed to get vaccinated or secure a religious or medical exemption were ordered to serve the equivalent of a week-long unpaid suspension. As of Tuesday, only six employees had received notices of discipline for failing to adhere to the city policy.
Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco, said officials across the country need to follow Liccardo’s lead and “change the definition of fully vaccinated to include boosters.”
“We have to do whatever we can to encourage vaccinations first and foremost, but with this current variant, we need boosters and there are no ifs, ands or buts about that,” Rutherford said. “This is going to be a big challenge because it’s so much more transmissible but the key is boosters.”
The first omicron variant case in the U.S. was reported on Dec. 1 in a San Francisco resident who had recently returned for South Africa.
Since then, the quickly spreading variant has become by far the dominant form of new coronavirus cases across the country, climbing from less than 13% of sequenced cases on Dec. 11 to more than 73% in the matter of a week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.
As of Dec. 16, Santa Clara County had confirmed 10 cases of the omicron, but county officials stressed that it was likely far more widespread.
Of the county’s 10 omicron cases, four individuals were unvaccinated, five were vaccinated with two doses and one had also received a booster, according to County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody. Most of the individuals were symptomatic but none of them required hospitalization.
“Although preliminary data suggests (omicron) is less severe, there have been deaths in Britain,” Rutherford said. “This is not a free pass.”
In addition to getting a booster shot as soon as possible, Rutherford recommends that everyone stay vigilant about routine masking, COVID-19 testing, social distancing and avoiding indoor crowds.
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